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25 oEisrors. 





A LECTURE 




BY 



^ ^0 



Robert G. Ingersoll. 



Nothing is grander than to break chains from the bodies of men— nothing 
nobler than t<j destroy the phantoms of the soul 



NEW YORK. 
C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

1895. 



Prose-poems 

— AND — 

Sklections, 



BV 



ROBERT (l TnGERSOLL, 

Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 

R. "aiaiiOLSOiiie Q^sirto, coiitaiximg o^er 300 pages. 



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The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare 
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



A LECTURE 



BY 



Robert G. Ingersoll 



Nothing is grander than to break chains from the bodies of men — nothing 
nobler than to destroy the phantoms of the soul. 



NEW YORK. 

C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

1895. 



^iXou} 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, 

By ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



Xti^ ECKLER PKEJJ, 

^^ ruLTON >5r. 
New York. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



I. 



/^N the 1 2th of February, 1809, two babes were 
^^^ born — one in the woods of Kentucky, amid 
the hardships and poverty of pioneers ; one in Eng- 
land, surrounded by wealth and culture. One was 
educated in the University of Nature, the other at 
Cambridge. 

One associated his name with the enfranchisement 
of labor, with the emancipation of millions, with the 
salvation of the Republic. He is known to us as 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The other broke the chains of superstition and 
filled the world with intellectual light, and he is 
known as Charles Darwin. 

Nothing is grander than to break chains from the 



4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

bodies of men — nothing nobler than to destroy the 
phantoms of the soul. 

Because of these two men the Nineteenth Century 
is illustrious. 

A few men and women make a nation glorious — 
Shakespeare made England immortal, Voltaire civil- 
ized and humanized France, Goethe, Schiller and 
Humboldt lifted Germany into the light. Angelo, 
Raphael, Galileo and Bruno crowned with fadeless 
laurel the Italian brow, and now the most precious 
treasure of the Great Republic is the memory of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Every generation has its heroes, its iconoclasts, its 
pioneers, its ideals. The people always have been 
and still are divided, at least into classes — the many, 
who with their backs to the sunrise worship the 
past, and the few, who keep their faces towards the 
dawn — the many, who are satisfied with the world 
as it is ; the few, who labor and suffer for the future, 
for those to be, and who seek to rescue the op- 
pressed, to destroy the cruel distinctions of caste, 
and to civilize mankind. 

Yet it sometimes happens that the liberator of one 
age becomes the oppressor of the next. His repu- 
tation becomes so great — he is so revered and wor- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. S 

shipped — that his followers, in his name, attack the 
hero who endeavors to take another step in advance. 

The heroes of the Revolution, forgetting the jus- 
tice for which they fought, put chains upon the limbs 
of others, and in their names the lovers of liberty 
were denounced as ingrates and traitors. 

During the Revolution our fathers to justify their 
rebellion dug down to the bed-rock of human rights 
and planted their standard there. They declared 
that all men were entitled to liberty and that govern- 
ment derived its power from the consent of the 
governed. But when victory came, the great prin- 
ciples were forgotten and chains were put upon the 
limbs of men. Both of the great political parties 
were controlled by greed and selfishness. Both 
were the defenders and protectors of slavery. For 
nearly three-quarters of a century these parties had 
control of the Republic. The principal object of 
both parties was the protection of the infamous in- 
stitution. Both were eaorer to secure the Southern 
vote and both sacrificed principle and honor upon 
the altar of success. 

At last the Whig party died and the Republican 
was born. This party was opposed to the further 
extension of slavery. The Democratic party of the 



6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

South wished to make the " divine institution " 
national — while the Democrats of the North wanted 
the question decided by each territory for itself. 

Each of these parties had conservatives and ex- 
tremists. The extremists of the Democratic party 
were in the rear and wished to go back ; the ex- 
tremists of the Republican party were in the front, 
and wished to q-q forward. The extreme Democrat 
was willing to destroy the Union for the sake of 
slavery, and the extreme Republican was willing to 
destroy the Union for the sake of liberty. 

Neither party could succeed without the votes of 
its extremists. 
,_ This was the condition in i858-6o. 

When Lincoln was a child his parents removed 
from Kentucky to Indiana. A few trees were felled 
— a log hut open to the south, no floor, no window, 
was built — a little land plowed and here the Lincolns 
lived. Here the patient, thoughtful, silent, loving 
mother died — died in the wide forest as a leaf dies, 
leaving nothing to her son but the memory of her 
love. 

In a few years the family moved to Illinois. Lin- 
coln then almost grown, clad in skins, with no woven 
stitch upon his body — walking and driving the 



H 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 

cattle. Another farm was opened — a few acres 
subdued and enough raised to keep the wolf from 
the door. Lincoln quit the farm — went down the 
Ohio and Mississippi as a hand on a flat-boat — 
afterwards clerked in a country store — then in part- 
nership with another bought the store — failed. 
Nothing left but a few debts — learned the art of 
surveying — made about half a living and paid some- 
thing on the debts — read law — admitted to the bar 
— tried a few small cases — nominated for the leois- 

o 

lature and made a speech. 

This speech was in favor of a tariff, not only for 
revenue, but to encourage American manufacturers 
and to protect American workingmen. Lincoln 
knew then as well as we do now, that everything, 
to the limits of the possible, that Americans use 
should be produced by the energy, skill and in- 
genuity of Americans. He knew that the more 
industries we had, the greater variety of things we 
made, the greater would be the development of the 
American brain. And he knew that great men and y^" 
great women are the best things that a nation can 
produce, — the finest crop a country can possibly 
raise. 

He knew that a nation that sells raw material will 



8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

grow ignorant and poor, while the people who man- 
ufacture will grow intelligent and rich. To dig, to 
chop, to plow, requires more muscle than mind, more 
strength than thought. 

To invent, to manufacture, to take advantage of 
the forces of nature — this requires thought, talent, 
genius. This develops the brain and gives wings 
to the imagination. 

It is better for Americans to purchase from Amer- 
icans, even if the things purchased cost more. 

If we purchase a ton of steel rails from England 
for twenty dollars, then we have the rails and Eng- 
land the money. But if we buy a ton of steel rails 
from an American for twenty-five dollars, then 
America has the rails and the money both. 

Judging from the present universal depression and 
the recent elections, Lincoln, in his first speech, 
stood on solid rock and was absolutely right. Lin- 
coln was educated in the University of Nature — 
educated by cloud and star — by field and winding 
stream — by billowed plains and solemn forests — by 
morning's birth and death of day — by storm and 
night — by the ever eager Spring — by Summer's 
wealth of leaf and vine and flower — the sad and 
transient glories of the Autumn woods — and Win- 



ABRAHAM LINXOLN. 9 

ter, builder of home and fireside, and whose storms 
without, create the social warmth within. 

He was perfectly acquainted with the political 
questions of the day — heard them discussed at 
taverns and country stores, at voting places and 
courts and on the stump. He knew all the argu- 
ments for and against, and no man of his time was 
better equipped for intellectual conflict. He knew 
the average mind — the thoughts of the people, the 
hopes and prejudices of his fellow-men. He had 
the power of accurate statement. He was logical, 
candid and sincere. In addition, he had the *' touch 
of nature that makes the whole world kin." 

In 1 858 he was a candidate for the Senate against 
Stephen A. Douglas. 

The extreme Democrats would not vote for Doug- 
las, but the extreme Republicans did vote for Lin- 
coln. Lincoln occupied the middle ground, and was 
the compromise candidate of his own party. He 
had lived for many years in the intellectual territory 
of compromise — in a part of our country settled by 
Northern and Southern men —where Northern and 
Southern ideas met, and the ideas of the two sec- 
tions were brought together and compared. 

The sympathies of Lincoln, his ties of kindred, 



10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

were with the South. His convictions, his sense of 
justice, and his ideals, were with the North. He 
knew the horrors of slavery, and he felt the un- 
speakable ecstacies and glories of freedom. He had 
the kindness, the gentleness, of true greatness, and 
he could not have been a master ; he had the man- 
hood and independence of true greatness, and he 
could not have been a slave. He was just, and was 
incapable of putting a burden upon others that he 
himself would not willingly bear. 

He was merciful and profound, and it was not 
necessary for him to read the history of the world to 
know that liberty and slavery could not live in the 
same nation, or in the same brain. Lincoln was a 
statesman. And there is this difference between a 
politician and a statesman. A politician schemes 
and works in every way to make the people do 
somethino^ for him. A statesman wishes to do some- 
thing for the people. With him place and power 
are means to an end, and the end is the good of his 
country. 

In this campaign Lincoln demonstrated three things 
— first, that he was the intellectual superior of his op- 
ponent ; second, that he was right ; and third, that a 
majority of the voters of Illinois were on his side. 



ASRAHAM LINCOLN. 11 



II. 



I 



N i860 the Republic reached a crisis. The con- 
flict between liberty and slavery could no longer 
be delayed. For three-quarters of a century the 
forces had been gathering for the battle. 

After the Revolution, principle was sacrificed for 
the sake of gain. The Constitution contradicted the 
Declaration. Liberty as a principle was held in con- 
tempt. Slavery took possession of the Government. 
Slavery made the laws, corrupted courts, dominated 
presidents and demoralized the people. 

I do not hold the South responsible for slavery 
any more than I do the North, The fact is, that 
individuals and nations act as they must. There is 
no chance. Back of every event— of every hope, 
prejudice, fancy and dream — of every opinion and 
beHef — of every vice and virtue — of every smile 
and curse, is the efficient cause. The present mo- 
ment is the child, and the necessary child, of all the 
past. 

Northern politicians wanted office, and so they 
defended slavery — Northern merchants wanted to 
sell their goods to the South, and so they were the 
enemies of freedom. The preacher wished to please 



12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the people who paid his salary, and so he denounced 
the slave for not being satisfied with the position in 
which the good God had placed him. 

The respectable, the rich, the prosperous, the 
holders of and the seekers for office, held liberty in 
contempt. They regarded the Constitution as far 
more sacred than the rights of men. — Candidates 
for the presidency were applauded because they had 
tried to make slave vStates of free territory, and the 
highest Court solemnly and ignorantly decided that 
colored men and women had no rights. Men who 
insisted that freedom was better than slavery, and 
that mothers should not be robbed of their babes, 
were hated, despised and mobbed. Mr. Douglas 
voiced the feelings of millions when he declared that 
he did not care whether slavery was voted up or 
down. Upon this question the people, a majority 
of them, were almost savages. Honor, manhood, 
conscience, principle — all sacrificed for the sake of 
gain or office. 

From the heights of philosophy — standing above 
the contending hosts, above the prejudices, the 
sentimentalities of the day • — Lincoln was great 
enough and brave enough and wise enough to utter 
these prophetic words : 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1 3 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this 
Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half 
free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not ex- 
pect the house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all the one thing or the other. Either 
the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it wiiere the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is 
in the course of uldmate extinction, or its advocates will push 
it further until it becomes alike lawful in all the States, old as 
well as new, North as well as South." 

This declaration was the standard around which 
gathered the grandest political party the w^orld has 
ever seen, and this declaration made Lincoln the 
leader of that vast host. 

In this, the first great crisis, Lincoln uttered the 
victorious truth that made him the foremost man in 
the Republic. 

The Republican party nominated him for the 
presidency and the people decided at the polls that 
a house divided against itself could not stand, and 
that slavery had cursed soul and soil enough. 

It is not a common thing to elect a really great 
man to fill the highest official position. I do not say 
that the great presidents have been chosen by acci- 
dent. Probably it would be better to say that they 
were the favorites of a happy chance. 

The average man is afraid of genius. He feels as 



14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

an awkward man feels in the presence of a sleight- 
of-hand performer. He admires and suspects. 
Genius appears to carry too much sail — to lack 
prudence, has too much courage. The ballast of 
dullness inspires confidence. 

By a happy chance Lincoln was nominated and 
elected in spite of his fitness — and the patient, 
gentle, just and loving man was called upon to bear 
as great a burden as man has ever borne. 

III. 

T^HEN came another crisis — the crisis of Seces- 
sion, and Civil War. 

Again Lincoln spoke the deepest feeling and the 
highest thought of the Nation. In his first message 
he said : 

''The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy." 

He also showed conclusively that the North and 
South, in spite of secession, must remain face to 
face — that physically they could not separate • — that 
they must have more or less commerce, and that 
this commerce must be carried on, either between 
the two sections as friends, or as aliens : 

This situation and its consequences he pointed 
out to absolute perfection in these words : 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I 5 

' ' Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? 
Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than 
laws among friends ? ' ' 

After having stated fully and fairly the philosophy 
of the conflict, after having said enough to satisfy 
any calm and thoughtful mind, he addressed himself 
to the hearts of America. Probably there are few 
finer passages in literature than the close of Lin- 
coln's inauofural address : 

" I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of 
memory stretching from every battlefield and patriotic grave to 
every lo\'ing heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
will swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

These noble, these touching, these pathetic words, 
were delivered in the presence of rebellion, in the 
midst of spies and conspirators — surrounded by but 
few friends, most of whom were unknown, and some 
of whom were wavering in their fidehty — at a time 
when secession was arrogant and organized, when 
patriotism was silent, and when, to quote the ex- 
pressive words of Lincoln himself, '' Sinners were 
calling the righteous to repentance." 

When Lincoln became President, he was held in 



1 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

contempt by the South — underrated by the North 
and East — not appreciated even by his cabinet — 
and yet he was not only one of the wisest, but one 
of the shrewdest of mankind. Knowing that he had 
the riorht to enforce the laws of the Union in all 

o 

parts of the United States and Territories — know- 
ing, as he did, that the secessionists were in the 
wrong, he also knew that they had sympathizers not 
only in the North but in other lands. 

Consequently he felt that it was of the utmost im- 
portance that the South should fire the first shot, 
should do some act that would solidify the North 
and gain for us the justification of the civilized world. 

He proposed to give food to the soldiers at Sum- 
ter. He asked the advice of all his cabinet on this 
question, and all, with the exception of Montgomery 
Blair, answered in the negative, giving their reasons 
in writing. In spite of this, Lincoln took his own 
course — endeavored to send the supplies, and while 
thus engaged, doing his simple duty, the South 
commenced actual hostilities and fired on the fort. 
The course pursued by Lincoln was absolutely right, 
and the act of the South to a great extent solidified 
the North, and gained for the Republic the justifica- 
tion of a great number of people in other lands. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I? 

At that time Lincoln appreciated the scope and 
consequences of the impending conflict. Above all 
other thouo^hts in his mind was this : 

''This conflict will setde the question, at least for 
"centuries to come, whether man is capable of 
''governing himself, and consequently is of greater 
" importance to the free than to the enslaved." 

He knew what depended on the issue and he said : 

" We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, 
" best hope of earth." 

IV. 

T^HEN came a crisis in the North. It became 
clearer and clearer to Lincoln's mind, day by 
day, that the rebellion was slavery, and that it was 
necessary to keep the border States on the side of 
the Union. For this purpose he proposed a scheme 
of emancipation and colonization — a scheme by 
which the owners of slaves should be paid the full 
value of what they called their " property." 

He knew that if the border States agreed to grad- 
ual emancipation, and received compensation for 
their slaves, they would be forever lost to the Con- 
federacy, whether secession succeeded or not. It 
v/as objected at the time, by some, that the scheme 



I 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was far too expensive ; but Lincoln, wiser than his 
advisers — far wiser than his enemies — demon- 
strated that from an economical point of view, his 
course was best. 

He proposed that $400 be paid for slaves, includ- 
ing men, women and children. This was a large 
price, and yet he showed how much cheaper it was 
to purchase than to carry on the vv^ar. 

At that time, at the price mentioned, there were 
about $750,000 worth of slaves in Delaware. The 
cost of carrying on the war was at least two millions 
of dollars a day, and for one- third of one day's ex- 
penses, all the slaves in Delaware could be purchased. 
He also showed that all the slaves in Delaware, 
Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri could be bought, 
at the same price, for less than the expense of carry- 
ing on the war for eighty-seven days. 

This was the wisest thing that could have been 
proposed, and yet such was the madness of the 
South, such the indignation of the North, that the 
advice was unheeded. 

Again, in July, 1862, he urged on the Representa- 
tives of the border States a scheme of gradual com- 
pensated emancipation ; but the Representatives 
were too deaf to hear, too blind to see. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I 9 

Lincoln always hated slavery, and yet he felt the 
obligations and duties of his position. In his first 
message he assured the South that the laws, includ- 
Ino- the most odious of all — the law for the return 
of fugitive slaves — would be enforced. The South 
would not hear. Afterwards he proposed to pur- 
chase the slaves of the border States, but the propo- 
sition was hardly discussed — hardly heard. Events 
came thick and fast ; theories gave way to facts, and 
everything was left to force. 

The extreme Democrat of the North was fearful 
that slavery might be destroyed, that the Constitu- 
tion might be broken, and that Lincoln, after all, 
could not be trusted ; and at the same time the radi- 
cal Republican feared that Lincoln loved the Union 
more than he did liberty. 

The fact is, that he tried to discharge the obliga- 
tions of his great of^ce, knowing from the first that 
slavery must perish. The course pursued by Lin- 
coln was so gentle, so kind and persistent, so wise 
and logical, that millions of Northern Democrats 
sprang to the defence, not only of the Union, but of 
his administration. Lincoln refused to be led or 
hurried by Fremont or Hunter, by Greeley or Sum- 
ner. From first to last he was the real leader, and 
he kept step with events. 



20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



V. 



/^N the 22d of July, 1862, Lincoln sent word to 
^^ the members of his cabinet that he wished to 
see them. It so happened that Secretary Chase was 
the first to arrive. He found Lincoln reading a 
book. Looking up from the page, the President 
said : *' Chase, did you ever read this book ?" ''What 
book is it ?" asked Chase. "Artemus Ward," re- 
plied Lincoln. *' Let me read you this chapter, 
entitled ' Wax Wurx in Albany! " And so he began 
reading while the other members of the cabinet one 
by one came in. At last Stanton told Mr. Lincoln 
that he was in a great hurry, and if any business was 
to be done he would like to do it at once. Where- 
upon Mr. Lincoln laid down the open book — opened 
a drawer, took out a paper and said : '' Gentlemen, I 
have called you together to notify you what I have 
determined to do — I want no advice. Nothing can 
change my mind." 

He then read the Proclamation of Emancipation — 
Chase thought there ought to be something about 
God at the close, to tvhich Lincoln replied : '• Pyt it 
in, it won't hurt it." It was also agreed that the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 21 

President would wait for a victory in the field before 
giving the Proclamation to the world. 

The meeting was over, the members went their 
way. Mr. Chase was the last to go, and as he went 
through the door looked back and saw that Mr. Lin- 
coln had taken up the book and was again engrossed 
in the Wax Wurx at Albaiiy, 

This was on the 2 2d of July, 1862. On the 2 2d 
of August of the same year — after Lincoln wrote 
his celebrated letter to Horace Greeley, in which he 
stated that his object was to save the Union ; that he 
lijotdd save it with slavery if he could ; that if it was 
necessary to destroy slavery in order to save the 
Union, he would ; in other words, he would do what 
was necessary to save the Union. 

This letter disheartened, to a great degree, thou- 
sands and millions of the friends of freedom. They 
felt that Mr. Lincoln had not attained the moral 
height upon which they supposed he stood. And 
yet, when this letter was written, the Emancipation 
Proclamation was in his hands, and had been for 
thirty days, waiting only an opportunity to give it to 
the world. 

Some two weeks after the letter to Greeley, Lin- 
coln was waited on by a committee of clergymen, 



2 2 ABRAHAM TJNCOLN. 

and was by them informed that it was God's will that 
he should issue a Proclamation of Emancipation. 
He replied to them, in substance, that the day of 
miracles had passed. He also mildly and kindly 
suggested that if it were God's will this Proclamation 
should be issued, certainly God would have made 
known that will to him — to the person whose duty 
it was to issue it. 

On the 2 2d day of September, 1862, the most 
glorious date in the history of the Republic, the 
Proclamation of Emancipation was issued. 

Lincoln had reached the generalization of all argu- 
ment upon the question of slavery and freedom — a 
generalization that never has been, and probably 
never will be, excelled : 

* ' In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the 
free." 

This is absolutely true. Liberty can be retained, 
can be enjoyed, only by giving it to others. The 
spendthrift saves, the miser is prodigal. In the realm 
of Freedom, waste is husbandry. He who puts 
chains upon the body of another shackles his own 
soul. The moment the Proclamation was issued, 
the cause of the Republic became sacred. From 
that moment the North fought for the human race. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 23 

From that moment the North stood under the bhie 
and stars, the flag of Nature — subhme and free. 

In 1 83 1, Lincohi went down the Mississippi on a 
flat-boat. He received the extravagant salary of 
ten dollars a month. When he reached New Or- 
leans, he and some of his companions went about 
the city. 

Among other places, they visited a slave market, 
where men and women were being sold at auction. 
A young colored girl was on the block. Lincoln 
heard the brutal words of the auctioneer — the savage 
remarks of bidders. The scene filled his soul with 
indio^nation and horror. 

Turning to his companions, he said, " Boys, if I 
ever get a chance to hit slavery, by God I'll hit it 
hard!" 

The helpless girl, unconsciously, had planted in a 
great heart the seeds of the Proclamation. 

Thirty-one years afterwards the chance came, the 
oath was kept, and to four millions of slaves, of men, 
women and children, was restored liberty, the jewel 
of the soul. 

In the history, in the fiction of the world, there is 
nothing more intensely dramatic than this. 

Lincoln held within his brain the grandest truths, 



24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and he held them as unconsciously, as easily, as 
naturally, as a waveless pool holds within its stainless 
breast a thousand stars. 

In these two years we had traveled from the Or- 
dinance of Secession to the Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation. 

VI. 

"X X /"E were surrounded by enemies. Many of the 
^ ^ so-called great in Europe and England were 
against us. They hated the Republic, despised our 
institutions, and sought in many ways to aid the 
South. 

Mr. Gladstone announced that Jefferson Davis had 
made a nation, and that he did not believe the restor- 
ation of the American Union by force attainable. 

From the Vatican came words of encouragement 
for the South. 

It was declared that the North was fighting for 
empire and the South for independence. 

The Marquis of Salisbury said : " The people of 
the South are the natural allies of England. The 
North keeps an opposition shop in the same depart- 
ment of trade as ourselves." 

Not a very elevated sentiment — but English. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2 5 

Some of their statesmen declared that the subju- 
gation of the South by the North would be a calamity 
to the world. 

Louis Napoleon was another enemy, and he en- 
deavored to establish a monarchy in Mexico, to the 
end that the great North might be destroyed. But 
the patience, the uncommon common sense, the 
statesmanship of Lincoln — in spite of foreign hate 
and Northern division — triumphed over all. And 
now we forgive all foes. Victory makes forgiveness 

easy. 

Lincoln was, by nature, a diplomat. He knew 
the art of sailing against the wind. He had as 
much shrewdness as is consistent with honesty. 
He understood, not only the rights of individ- 
uals, but of nations. In all his correspondence 
with other governments he neither wrote nor 
sanctioned a line which afterwards was used to 
tie his hands. In the use of perfect English he 
easily rose above all his advisers and all his 
fellows. 

No one claims that Lincoln did all. He could 
have done nothing without the generals in the field ; 
and the generals could have done nothing without 
their armies. The praise is due to all — to the 



26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

private as much as to the officer ; to the lowest who 
did his duty, as much as to the highest. 

My heart goes out to the brave private as much 
as to the leader of the host. 

But Lincoln stood at the centre and with infinite 
patience, with consummate skill, with the genius of 
goodness, directed, cheered, consoled and conquered. 



VII. 



QLAVERY was the cause of the war, and slavery 
^^ was the perpetual stumbling-block. As the war 
went on, question after question arose — questions 
that could not be answered by theories. Should we 
hand back the slave to his master, when the master 
was using his slave to destroy the Union? If the 
South was right, slaves were property, and by the 
laws of war anything that might be used to the ad- 
vantage of the enemy might be confiscated by us. 
Events did not wait for discussion. General Butler 
denominated the neoro as " a contraband." Con- 
gress provided that the property of the rebels might 
be confiscated. 

The extreme Democrats of the North regarded 
the slave as more sacred than life. It was no harm 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2'] 

to kill the master — to l)urn his house, to ravage his 
fields — but you must not free his slave. 

If in war, a nation has the right to take the prop- 
erty of its citizens — of its friends — certainly it has 
the right to take the property of those it has the 
right to kill. 

Lincoln was wise enough to know that war 
Is governed by the laws of war, and that dur- 
ing the conflict constitutions are silent. All 
that he could do he did in the interests of 
peace. He offered to execute every law — in- 
cluding the most infamous of all — to buy the 
slaves in the border States — to establish erad- 
ual, compensated emancipation ; but the South 
would not hear. Then he confiscated the prop- 
erty of rebels — treated the slaves as contraband 
of war, used them to put down the rebellion, 
armed them and clothed them in the uniform 
of the Republic — was in favor of making 
them citizens and allowinof them to stand on 
an equality with their white ^brethren under the 
flag of the Nation. During these years Lincoln 
moved with events, and every step he took has 
been justified by the considerate judgment of man- 
kind. 



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

VIII. 

T INCOLN not only watched the war, but kept his 
^-^ hand on the poHtical pulse. In 1863 a tide set 
in against the administration. A Republican meet- 
ing was to be held in Springfield, Illinois, and Lin- 
coln wrote a letter to be read at this convention. 
It was in his happiest vein. It was a perfect defense 
of his administration, including the Proclamation of 
Emancipation. Among other things he said : 

** But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or it is not 
valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction, but if it is valid 
it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought 
to life." 

To the Northern Democrats who said they would 
not fight for negroes, Lincoln replied : 

**Some of them seem willing to fight for you — but no 
matter." 

Of neofro soldiers : 

' ' But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why 
should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them ? 
If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the 
strongest motive — even the promise of freedom. And the 
promise, being made, must be kept." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 

There is one line in this letter that will give it 
immortality : 

"The Father of waters again goes unvexed to the sea." 

This line is worthy of Shakespeare. 
Another : 

''Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the 
ballot to the bullet." 

He draws a comparison between the white men 
against us and the black men for us : 

"And then there will be some black men who can remember 
that with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and 
well-poised bayonet they have helped mankind on to this great 
consummation ; while I fear there will be some white ones un- 
able to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech 
they strove to hinder it. ' ' 

Under the influence of this letter, the love of coun- 
try, of the Union, and above all, the love of liberty, 
took possession of the heroic North. 

There was the greatest moral exaltation ever 
known. 

The spirit of liberty took possession of the people. 
The masses became sublime. 

To fight for yourself is natural — to fight for others 
is grand — to fight for your country is noble — to 



30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

fight for the human race — for the Hberty of hand 
and brain — is nobler still. 

As a matter of fact, the defenders of slavery had 
sown the seeds of their own defeat. They dug the 
pit in which they fell. Clay and Webster and thou- 
sands of others, had by their eloquence made the 
Union almost sacred. The Union was the very tree 
of life, the source and stream and sea of liberty and 
law. 

For the sake of slavery millions stood by the 
Union, for the sake of liberty millions knelt at the 
altar of the Union ; and this love of the Union 
is what, at last, overwhelmed the Confederate 
hosts. 

It does not seem possible that only a few 
years ago our Constitution, our laws, our Courts, 
the Pulpit and the Press defended and upheld 
the institution of slavery — that it was a crime to 
feed the hungry — to give water to the lips of 
thirst — shelter to a woman flying from the whip 
and chain ! • 

The old flag still flies — the stars are there — the 
stains have gone. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 3 I 

IX. 

T INCOLN always saw the end. He was unmoved 
^ by the storms and currents of the times. He 
advanced too rapidly for the conservative politicians, 
too slowly for the radical enthusiasts. He occupied 
the line of safety, and held by his personality — by 
the force of his great character, by his charming 
candor — the masses on his side. 

The soldiers thought of him as a father. 

All who had lost their sons in battle felt that they 
had his sympathy — felt that his face was as sad as 
theirs. They knew that Lincoln was actuated by 
one motive, and that his energies were bent to the 
attainment of one end — the salvation of the Re- 
public. 

They knew that he was kind, sincere and merci- 
ful. They knew that in his veins there was no drop 
of tyrants' blood. They knew that he used his 
power to protect the innocent, to save reputation 
and life — that he had the brain of a philosopher — % 
the heart of a mother. 

During all the years of war, Lincoln stood the 
embodiment of mercy, between discipline and death. 
He pitied the imprisoned and condemned. He took 



32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the unfortunate in his arms, and was the friend even 
of the convict. He knew temptation's strength — 
the weakness of the will — and how in fury's sudden 
flame the judgment drops the scales, and passion — 
blind and deaf — usurps the throne. 

One day a woman, accompanied by a Senator, 
called on the President. The woman was the wife 
of one of Mosby's men. Her husband had been 
captured, tried and condemned to be shot. She 
came to ask for the pardon of her husband. The 
President heard her story and then asked what kind 
of man her husband was. " Is he intemperate, does 
he abuse the children and beat you ? " " No, no," 
said the wife, '' he is a good man, a good husband, 
he loves me and he loves the children, and we can.- 
not live without him. The only trouble is that he 
is a fool about politics — I live in the North, born 
there, and if I get him home, he will do no more 
fighting for the South." '' Well," said Mr. Lincoln, 
after examining the papers, " I will pardon your 
husband and turn him over to you for safe keeping." 
The poor woman, overcome with joy, sobbed as 
though her heart would break. 

" My dear woman," said Lincoln, '' if I had known 
how badly it was going to make you feel, I never 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 

would have pardoned him." '' You do not under- 
stand me," she cried between her sobs. " You do 
not understand me." '' Yes, yes, I do," answered 
the President, " and if you do not go away at once I 
shall be crying with you." 

On another occasion, a member of Congress, on 
his way to see Lincoln, found in one of the ante- 
rooms of the White House an old white-haired man, 
sobbinor — his wrinkled face wet with tears. The 
old man told him that for several days he had tried 
to see the President — that he wanted a pardon for 
his son. The Conofressman told the old man to 
come with him and he would Introduce him to Mr. 
Lincoln. On belny: introduced, the old man said : 
'' Mr. Lincoln, my wife sent me to you. We had 
three boys. They all joined your army. One of 
'em has been killed — one's a fighting now, and one 
of 'em, the youngest, has been tried for deserting 
and he's going to be shot day after to-morrow. He 
never deserted. He's Vv^ld, and he may have drunk 
too much and wandered off, but he never deserted. 
Taint in the blood — he's his mother's favorite, and 
if he's shot, I know she'll die." The President, 
turning to his secretary, said : '' Telegraph General 
Butler to suspend the execution in the case of ~ 



34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

[giving the name] until further orders from me, and 
ask him to answer ." 

The Congressman congratulated the old man on 
his success — but the old man did not respond. He 
was not satisfied. " Mr. President," he began, '' 1 
can't take that news home. It won't satisfy his 
mother. How do I know but what you'll give further 
orders to-morrow?" "My good man," said Mr. 
Lincoln, '* I have to do the best I can. The generals 
are complaining because I pardon so many. They 
say that my mercy destroys discipline. Now, when 
you get home you tell his mother what you said to 
me about my giving further orders, and then you tell 
her that I said this : * If your son lives until they get 
further orders from me, that when he does die peo- 
ple will say that old Methusaleh was a baby com- 
pared to him.' " 

The pardoning power is the only remnant of ab- 
solute sovereignty that a President has. Through 
all the years, Lincoln will be known as Lincoln the 
loving, Lincoln the merciful. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ^5 

X. 

T INCOLN had the keenest sense of humor, and 
^^ always saw the laucrhable side even of disaster. 
In his humor there was loo^ic and the best of sense. 
No matter how^ complicated the question, or how 
embarrassino- the situation, his humor furnished an 
answer, and a door of escape. 

Vallandingham was a friend of the South, and did 
what he could to sow the seeds of failure. In his 
opinion everything, except rebellion, was unconsti- 
tutional. 

He was arrested, convicted by a court martial, and 
sentenced to imprisonment. 

There was doubt about the legality of the trial, 
and thousands in the North denounced the whole 
proceeding as tyrannical and infamous. At the same 
time millions demanded that Vallandino-ham should 

o 

be punished. 

Lincoln's humor came to the rescue. He disap- 
proved of the findings of the court, changed the 
punishment, and ordered that Mr. Vallandingham 
should be sent to his friends in the South. 

Those who regarded the act as unconstitutional 
almost forgave it for the sake of its humor. 



36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Horace Greeley always had the idea that he was 
greatly superior to Lincoln, because he lived in a 
larger town, and for a long time insisted that the 
people of the North and the people of the South 
desired peace. He took it upon himself to lecture 
Lincoln. Lincoln, with that wonderful sense of 
humor, united with shrewdness and profound wisdom, 
told Greeley that, if the South really wanted peace, 
he (Lincoln) desired the same thing, and was doing 
all he could to bring it about. Greeley insisted that 
a commissioner should be appointed, with authority 
to negotiate with the representatives of the Con- 
federacy. This was Lincoln's opportunity. He 
authorized Greeley to act as such commissioner. 
The great editor felt that he was caught. For a 
time he hesitated, but finally went, and found that 
the Southern commissioners were willing to take 
into consideration any offers of peace that Lincoln 
might make, consistent with the independence of the 
Confederacy. 

The failure of Greeley was humiliating, and the 
position in which he was left, absurd. 

Again the humor of Lincoln had triumphed. 

Lincoln, to satisfy a few fault-finders in the North, 
went to Grant's headquarters and met some Con- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 

federate commissioners. He urged that it was hardly 
proper for him to negotiate with the representatives 
of rebels in arms — that if the South wanted peace, 
all they had to do was to stop fighting. One of the 
commissioners cited as a precedent the fact that 
Charles the First negotiated with rebels in arms. 
To which Lincoln replied that Charles the First lost 
his head. 

The conference came to nothing, as Mr. Lincoln 
expected. 

The commissioners, one of them being Alexander 
H. Stephens, who, when in good health, weighed 
about ninety pounds, dined with the President and 
Gen. Grant. After dinner, as they were leaving, 
Stephens put on an English ulster, the tails of which 
reached the ground, while the collar was somewhat 
above the wearer's head. 

As Stephens went out, Lincoln touched Grant and 
said : '' Grant, look at Stephens. Did you ever see 
as little a nubbin with as much shuck ? " 

Lincoln always tried to do things in the easiest 
way. He did not waste his strength. He was not 
particular about moving along straight lines. He 
did not tunnel the mountains. He was willing to go 
around, and reach the end desired as a river reaches 
the sea. 



38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

XL 

/^NE of the most wonderful things ever done by 
^^ Lincoln was the promotion of General Hooker. 
After the batde of Fredericksburg, General Burnside 
found great fault with Hooker, and wished to have 
him removed from the Army of the Potomac. Lin- 
coln disapproved of Burnside's order, and gave 
Hooker the command. He then wrote Hooker this 
memorable letter : 

* ' I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Poto- 
mac. Of course I have done this upon what appears to me to 
be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know 
that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite 
satisfied with you. I beHeve you to be a brave and skillful 
soldier — which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not 
mix politics with your profession — in which you are right. 
You have confidence — which is a valuable, if not an indispen- 
sable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable 
bounds, does good rather than harm ; but I think that during 
General Burnside's command of the army you have taken 
counsel of your ambition to thwart him as much as you could — 
in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most 
meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in 
such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both 
the army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course it 
was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you com- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 39 

mand. Only those generals who gain successes can set up 
dictators. What I now ask of you is military successes, and I 
will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you 
to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than 
it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that 
the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army, of 
criticising their commander and withholding confidence in him, 
will now turn upon you. I shall assist you, so far as I can, to 
put it down. Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive, can 
get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. 
And now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with 
energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories." 

This letter has, in my judgment, no parallel. The 
mistaken magnanimity is almost equal to the 
prophecy : 

' ' I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse 
into the army, of criticising their command and withholding 
confidence in him, will now turn upon you." 

Chancellorsville was the fulfillment. 

XII. 

/\/lR. LINCOLN was a statesman. The great 
stumbling-block — the great obstruction — in 
Lincoln's way, and in the way of thousands, was the 
old doctrine of States Rights. 

This doctrine was first established to protect 
slavery. It was clung to to protect the inter- State 



40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

slave trade. It became sacred In connection with 
the Fugitive Slave Law, and it was finally used as 
the corner-stone of Secession. 

This doctrine was never appealed to in defense of 
the right — always in support of the wrong. For 
many years politicians upon both sides of this ques- 
tion endeavored to express the exact relations ex- 
isting between the Federal Government and the 
States, and I know of no one who succeeded, except 
Lincoln. In his message of i86t, delivered on July 
the 4th, the definition is given, and it is perfect : 

" Whatever concerns the whole should be confided to the 
whole — to the General Government. Whatever concerns only 
the State should be left exclusively to the State." 

When that definition is realized in practice, this 
country becomes a Nation. Then we shall know 
that the first allegiance of the citizen is not to his 
State, but to the Republic, and that the first duty of 
the Republic is to protect the citizen, not only when 
in other lands, but at home, and that this duty can- 
not be discharged by delegating it to the States. 

Lincoln believed in the sovereignty of the people 
— in the supremacy of the Nation — in the territorial 
Integrity of the Republic. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4 1 

XIII. 

A GREAT actor can be known only when he has 
assumed the principal character in a great 
drama. Possibly the greatest actors have never ap- 
peared, and it may be that the greatest soldiers have 
lived the lives of perfect peace. Lincoln assumed 
the leading part in the greatest drama ever enacted 
upon the stage of this continent. 

His criticisms of military movements, his corre- 
spondence with his generals and others on the con- 
duct of the war, show that he was at all times master 
of the situation — that he was a natural strategist, 
that he appreciated the difficulties and advantages 
of every kind, and that in " the still and mental " 
field of war he stood the peer of any man beneath 
the flag. 

Had McClelland followed his advice, he would 
have taken Richmond. 

Had Hooker acted in accordance with his sueees- 

oo 

tions, Chancellorsville would have been a victory for 
the Nation. 

Lincoln's political prophecies were all fulfilled. 

We know now that he not only stood at the top, 
but that he occupied the centre, from first to last, 



42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and that he did this by reason of his Intelligence, 
his humor, his philosophy, his courage and his 
patriotism. 

In passions' storm he stood, unmoved, patient, just 
and candid. In his brain there was no cloud, and in 
his heart no hate. He longed to save the South as 
well as North, to see the Nation one and free. 

He lived until the end was known. 

He lived until the Confederacy was dead — until 
Lee surrendered, until Davis fled, until the doors of 
Libby Prison were opened, until the Republic was 
supreme. 

He lived until Lincoln and Liberty were united 
forever. 

He lived to cross the desert — to reach the palms 
of victory — to hear the murmured music of the wel- 
come waves. 

He lived until all loyal hearts were his — until the 
history of his deeds made music in the souls of men 
— until he knew that on Columbia's Calendar of 
worth and fame his name stood first. 

He lived until there remained nothing for him to 
do as great as he had done. 

What he did was worth living for, worth dying for. 

He lived until he stood in the midst of universal 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 43 

Joy, beneath the outstretched wings of Peace — the 
foremost man in all the world. 

And then the horror came. Night fell on noon. 
The Savior of the Republic, the breaker of chains, 
the liberator of millions, he who had " assured free- 
dom to the free," was dead. 

Upon his brow Fame placed the immortal wreath, 
and for the first time in the history of the world a 
Nation bowed and wept. 

The memory of Lincoln is the strongest, tenderest 
tie that binds all hearts together now, and holds all 
States beneath a Nation's flag. 

XIV. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN — strange mingling of 
^~^ mirth and tears, of the tragic and grotesque, 
of cap and crown, of Socrates and Democritus, of 
^sop and Marcus Aurelius, of all that is gentle and 
just, humorous and honest, merciful, wise, laughable, 
lovable and divine, and all consecrated to the use of 
man ; while through all, and over all, were an over- 
whelming sense of obligation, of chivalric loyalty to 
truth, and upon all, the shadow of the tragic end. 
Nearly all the great historic characters are impos- 



44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

sible monsters, disproportioned by flattery, or by 
calumny deformed. We know nothing of their 
peculiarities, or nothing but their peculiarities. 
About these oaks there clinos none of the earth of 
humanity. 

Washington is now only a steel engraving. About 
the real man who lived and loved and hated and 
schemed, we know but little. The glass through 
which we look at him is of such high magnifying 
power that the features are exceedingly indistinct. 

Hundreds of people are now engaged in smooth- 
ing out the lines of Lincoln's face — forcing all 
features to the common mould — so that he may he 
known, not as he really was, but, according to their 
poor standard, as he should have been, 

Lincoln was not a type. He stands alone — no 
ancestors, no fellows, and no successors. 

He had the advantage of living in a new country, 
of social equality, of personal freedom, of seeing in 
the horizon of his future the perpetual star of hope. 
He preserved his individuality and his self-respect. 
He knew and mingled with men of every kind ; 
and, after all, men are the best books. He became 
acquainted with the ambitions and hopes of the 
heart, the means used to accomplish ends, the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 

springs of action and the seeds of thought. He was 
familiar with nature, with actual things, with com- 
mon facts. He loved and appreciated the poem of 
the year, the drama of the seasons. 

In a new country a man must possess at least 
three virtues — honesty, courage and generosity. 
In cultivated society, cultivation is often more im- 
portant than soil. A well- executed counterfeit 
passes more readily than a blurred genuine. It is 
necessary only to observe the unwritten laws of 
society — to be honest enough to keep out of prison, 
and generous enough to subscribe in public — where 
the subscription can be defended as an investment. 

In a new country, character is essential ; in the 
old, reputation is sufficient. In the new, they find 
what a man really is ; in the old, he generally passes 
for what he resembles. People separated only by 
distance are much nearer together, than those divided 
by the walls of caste. 

It is no advantage to live in a great city, where 
poverty degrades and failure brings despair. The 
fields are lovelier than paved streets, and the great 
forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are more 
poetic than steeples and chimneys. 

In the country is the idea of home. There you 



46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

see the rising and setting sun ; you become ac- 
quainted with the stars and clouds. The constella- 
tions are your friends. You hear the rain on the 
roof and listen to the rhythmic sighing of the winds. 
You are thrilled by the resurrection called Spring, 
touched and saddened by Autumn — the grace and 
poetry of death. Every field is a picture, a land- 
scape : every landscape a poem ; every flower a 
tender thought, and every forest a fairy-land. In 
the country you preserve your identity — your per- 
sonality. There you are an aggregation of atoms ; 
but in the city you are only an atom of an aggrega- 
tion. 

In the country you keep your cheek close to the 
breast of Nature. You are calmed and ennobled by 
the space, the amplitude and scope of earth and sky 
— by the constancy of the stars. 

Lincoln never finished his education. To the 
night of his death he was a pupil, a learner, an 
inquirer, a seeker after knowledge. You have no 
idea how many men are spoiled by what is called 
education. For the most part, colleges are places 
where pebbles are polished and diamonds are 
dimmed. If Shakespeare had graduated at Oxford, 
he might have been a quibbling attorney, or a hypo- 
critical parson. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

Lincoln was a great lawyer. There Is nothing 
shrewder in this world than intelligent honesty. 
Perfect candor is sword and shield. 

He understood the natiie of man. As a lawyer 
he endeavored to get at the truth, at the very heart 
of a case. He was not willing even to deceive him- 
self. No matter what his interest said, what his 
passion demanded, he was great enough to find the 
truth and strong enough to pronounce judgment 
against his own desires. 

Lincoln was a many-sided man, acquainted with 
smiles and tears, complex in brain, single in heart, 
direct as light ; and his words, candid as mirrors, 
gave the perfect image of his thought. He was 
never afraid to ask — never too dignified to admit 
that he did not know. No man had keener wit, or 
kinder humor. 

It may be that humor is the pilot of reason. 
People without humor drift unconsciously into ab- 
surdity. Humor sees the other side — stands in the 
mind like a spectator, a good-natured critic, and 
gives its opinion before judgment is reached. Humor 
goes with good nature, and good nature is the 
climate of reason. In anger, reason abdicates and 
malice extinguishes the torch. Such was the humor 



48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of Lincoln that he could tell even unpleasant truths 
as charmingly as most men can tell the things we 
wish to hear. 

He was not solemn. Solemnity is a mask worn 
by ignorance and hypocrisy — it is the preface, pro- 
logue, and index to the cunning or the stupid. 

He was natural in his life and thought — master 
of the story-teller's art, in illustration apt, in applica- 
tion perfect, liberal in speech, shocking Pharisees 
and prudes, using any word that wit could disinfect. 

He was a logician. His logic shed light. In its 
presence the obscure became luminous, and the 
most complex and intricate political and metaphysi- 
cal knots seemed to untie themselves. Logic is the 
necessary product of intelligence and sincerity. It 
cannot be learned. It is the child of a clear head 
and a good heart. 

Lincoln was candid, and with candor often de- 
ceived the deceitful. He had intellect without arro- 
gance, genius without pride, and religion without 
cant — that is to say, without bigotry and withou' 
deceit. 

He was an orator — clear, sincere, natural. He 
did not pretend. He did not say what he thought 
others thought, but what he thought. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 49 

If you wish to be sublime you must be natural — 
you must keep close to the grass. You must sit by 
the fireside of the heart : above the clouds it is too 
cold. You must be simple in your speech : too 
much polish suggests insincerity. 

The great orator idealizes the real, transfigures the 
common, makes even the inanimate throb and thrill, 
fills the gallery of the imagination with statues and 
pictures perfect in form and color, brings to light the 
gold hoarded by memory the miser, shows the glit- 
tering coin to the spendthrift hope, enriches the 
brain, ennobles the heart, and quickens the con- 
science. Between his lips words bud and blossom. 

If you wish to know the difference between an 
orator and an elocutionist — between what is felt and 
what is said — between what the heart and brain can 
do together and what the brain can do alone — read 
Lincoln's wondrous speech at Gettysburg, and then 
the oration of Edward Everett. 

The speech of Lincoln will never be forgotten. 
It will live until languages are dead and lips are 
dust. The oration of Everett will never be read. 

The elocutionists believe in the virtue of voice, 
the sublimity of syntax, the majesty of long sen- 
tences, and the genius of gesture. 



5o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The orator loves the real, the simple, the natural. 
He places the thought above all. He knows that 
the greatest ideas should be expressed in the short- 
est words — that the greatest statues need the least 
drapery. 

Lincoln w^as an immense personality — firm but not 
obstinate. Obstinacy is egotism — firmness, heroism. 
He influenced others without effort, unconsciously ; 
and they submitted to him as men submit to nature 
— unconsciously. He was severe with himself, and 
for that reason lenient with others. 

He appeared to apologize for being kinder than 
his fellows. 

He did merciful things as stealthily as others com- 
mitted crimes. 

Almost ashamed of tenderness, he said and did the 
noblest words and deeds with that charming con- 
fusion, that awkwardness, that is the perfect grace of 
modesty. 

As a noble man, wishing to pay a small debt to a 
poor neighbor, reluctantly offers a hundred-dollar 
bill and asks for change, fearing that he may be sus- 
pected either of making a display of wealth or a pre- 
tense of payment, so Lincoln hesitated to show his 
wealth of goodness, even to the best he knew. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5 1 

A great man stooping, not wishing to make his 
fellows feel that they were small or mean. 

By his candor, by his kindness, by his perfect 
freedom from restraint, by saying what he thought, 
and saying it absolutely in his own wa}', he made it 
not only possible, but popular, to be natural. He 
was the enemy of mock solemnity, of the stupidly 
respectable, of the cold and formal. 

He wore no official robes either on his body or his 
soul. He never pretended to be more or less, or 
other, or different, from what he really was. 

He had the unconscious naturalness of Nature s 
self. 

He built upon the rock. The foundation was se- 
cure and broad. The structure was a pyramid, 
narrowing as it rose. Through days and nights of 
sorrow, through years of grief and pain, with un- 
swerving purpose, " with malice towards none, with 
charity for all," with infinite patience, with unclouded 
vision, he hoped and toiled. Stone after stone was 
laid, until at last the Proclamation found its place. 
On that the Goddess stands. 

He knew others, because perfectly acquainted 
w^ith himself. He cared nothing for place, but every- 
thing for principle ; little for money, but every- 



52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thing for independence. Where no principle was 
involved, easily swayed — willing to go slowly, if in 
the right direction — sometimes willing to stop ; but 
he would not go back, and he would not go wrong. 

He was willing to wait, tie knew that the event 
was not waiting, and that fate was not the fool of 
chance. He knew that slavery had defenders, but 
no defense, and that they who attack the right must 
wound themselves. 

He was neither tyrant nor slave. He neither 
knelt nor scorned. 

With him, men were neither great nor small — 
they were right or wrong. 

Through manners, clothes, titles, rags and race he 
saw the real — that which is. Beyond accident, 
policy, compromise and war he saw the end. 

He was patient as Destiny, whose undecipherable 
hieroglyphs were so deeply graven on his sad and 
tragic face. 

Nothinor discloses real character like the use of 
power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most 
people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know 
what a man really is, give him power. This is the 
supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having 
almost absolute power, he never abused it, except 
on the side of mercy. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

Wealth could not purchase, power could not awe, 
this divine, this loving man. 

He knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong. 
Hating slavery, pitying the master — seeking to 
conquer, not persons, but prejudices — he was the 
embodiment of the self-denial the courage, the hope 
and the nobility of a Nation. 

He spoke not to inflame, not to upbraid, but to 

convince. 

He raised his hands, not to strike, but in bene- 
diction 

He longed to pardon. 

He loved to see the pearls of joy on the cheeks of 
a wife whose husband he had rescued from death. 

Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest 
civil war. He is the gentlest memory of our 
world. 



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THESE Pictures almost speak to you audibly. You 
have only to imagine the musical, sympathetic 
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and the whole animated, pulsating form, to see and 
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All who want to see CoL. Ingersoi^l as he is and 
stands to-day, will get this photo. The panel size, in 
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BY 

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AT Albany, N. Y., Jan. 21, 1890. 



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Robert G. Ingersoll's writings. 

ONLY AUTHORIZED EDITIONS. 
Vol. I. — The Gods and Other Lectures. Contents: "XheGods," 

"Humboldt," " Thomas Paine," " Individuality," " Heretics and Heresies." 
i2mo, cloth, $1.25; paper, 50 cents. 

Vol. M. — The Ghosts and Other Lectures. Contents: "The 

Ghosts," " The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child," "The Declaration of 
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Vol. III. — Some Mistakes of Moses. i2mo, 278 pp, cloth, $1.25; 

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Vol. IV. — Ingersoll on Talmagian Theology. (New.) 443pp., 

cloth, gilt top, ;g2.oo; plain cloth, I1.25; paper, 50 cents. 

What Must We Do to be Saved. 89 pp., i2mo, paper, 25 cents. 

The Christian Religion. a Series of Articles on the Christian 
Religion. By Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Judge Jeremiah S. Black, and Prof. 
Geo. P. Fisher. The only complete and authorized edition ; one volume, 
Svo, 143 pages, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. 

Address on Civil Rights. By Col. Robert G. ingersoll. Price, 10 cts. 
Orthodoxy. This is the latest leaure by Robert G. Ingersoll, reviewing 
the creeds of the churches and answering them from their own standards. 
Garbled, incomplete, and ridiculous reports of this lecture, taken from the 
newspapers, have already appeared. They do the author great injustice and 
deceive the reading public. This edition, coming direct from the author's own 
publisher, is complete, and contains three times as much material as any of the 
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INGERSOLL'S LECTURES COMPLETE. 

Bound in One Volume. 

To meet the demand for Mr. Ingersoll's works, the publisher has had all his 
leaures, excepting the latest on " Orthodoxy," bound in one beautiful volume, in 
half calf, library style, and containing over 1,300 pages, which is sold at the ex- 
ceedingly low price of I5.00. Postpaid. 

JUST PXJBI^ISHED ! 

PROSE-POEMS A.ND SELECTIONS. RoW G. IflgersoU. 

This new book is a gem. It is a model in every respe6t. In fact, one of the 
richest, brightest, best ever issued. In the more elegant styles of binding, this 
volume is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or occasion. 
To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with autograph /ac-jzw:/^, has 
been prepared especially for it. 

In silk cloth, beveled edges, gilt back and side, I2.50; in half calf, mottled 
edges, elegant librarv style, I4.50 ; in full Turkey morocco, gilt, exquisitelv fine, 
I7.50; in full tree calf highest possible style and finish, $9.00. 

COL. INGERSOLL'S NOTE TO THE PUBLIC. 

Washington, D. C, yw/y 7<?,,/.5'<S9. 
I wish to notify the public that all books and pamphlets purporting to contain 
«ny leaures, and not containing the imprint of Mr. C. P. F.arrell as publisher, 
are spurious, grossly inaccurate, filled with mistakes, horriblv printed, and out- 
rageously unjust to me. The publishers of all such are simply I'iterarv thieves and 
pirates, and are obtaining money from the public under false pretences. These 
wretches have published one lefture under four titles, and several others under 
two or three. I take this course to warn the public that these publications are 
fraudulent ; the only corre6l editions being those published by Mr. C. P. Farrell. 

C. p. FARRELL, Publisher^ Bookseller & Importer, 

New York 

49^ HEADQUARTERS FOR ALL LIBERAL ANt SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS, ""^ft 



ARGUMKNT 

BY 

Robert G. Ingersoll 

IN THB 

TRIAL OK C. B. REYNOLD'S 

FOR 

'' blasphemy, '' 

A<r IvIOR.RIS'^O^A^N, NEW JERSE^Y. 



Stenographically reported, and revised by the Author. 



Handsome 8vo, 86 pp., beautiful type, fine paper, 
Price, cloth, 50 cts. ; paper cover, 25 cts. 



In this Argument Mr. Ingersoll again shows his great 
forensic powers. All his heart and brain are in it. It is one 
of his greatest productions. It is in his chosen field of intel- 
lectual combat, and we see him as the splendid champion of 
human liberty and the rights of man. His love of freedom and 
justice, hatred of tyranny and chains, sympathy for the op- 
pressed, misguided and enthralled, his courage and candor, 
have in this Argument full scope of expression, and he makes 
grand use of the opportunity. Such a flood of light— of 
eloquence, legal learning, logic, pathos, poetry and patriotism 
is not often poured out in a Court of Justice. 

The many calls for this Argument in complete and accurate 
shape have led to this publication, as revised by Mr. Inger- 
soll himself. All other publications are the merest fictions — 
reprints from meagre and misleading newspaper references. 

Lawyers and advocates will find this the model of an address 
to a jury ; statesmen and politicians a clear exposition of Con- 
stitutional rights and powers ; and intelligent, patriotic and free 
men and women everywhere, a Magna Charta of their rights, 

AfiLdress C. P. FAREELL, Publisher. 400 Fifth Ave., New York City. 



A Grand Book : as interesting and entertaining as any novel ! 

INGERSOLL'S 

Intef Views on Txilmage 

These Interviews were called out in answer to a series of 
theological discourses by Mr. Talmage. Three of them were 
originally given to a reporter of the daily press, but were after- 
wards revised and enlarged and three others added. The three 
newspaper reports being immediately pirated by so-called enter- 
prising but unprincipled publishers, were put upon the market in 
flimsy paper covers and heralded as the genuine " Ingersoll In- 
terviews." It is sufficient to say that in no other shape than the 
present complete volume are these " Interviews " to be had in 
their accurate and authorized entirety. 

As to the subject-matter it is essentially polemical, although 
not bitterly so. The foolish as well as serious phases of theo- 
logical ignorance and assumption are exposed to merited ridicule, 
and the weapons of good-natured wit and sarcasm are employed 
to laugh and shame religious superstition and arrogance out of 
court. In the " Talmagian Catechism " especially, which sums 
up the six interviews, are shafts of wit and satire as keen and 
polished as ever sped from human brain. They go straight to the 
mark, and remind one of Voltaire's pointed though not poisoned 
arrows aimed at the priestly pretensions of his day. In the 
graver and more serious statements and arguments, the facts and 
figures are splendidly marshalled and bear down with resistless 
form upon the theological foe, breaking his ranks and scattering 
his forces like chaff before a gale. 

There is not in literature another such book. It is a free- 
liought library in itself, and especially timely just now when 
bible's and creeds are being overhauled and " revision and divis- 
ion are in the air." No collection of Mr. Ingersoll's books is 
complete that does not include this in some respects his most 
remarkable work. 

A handsome 8°, 443 pages, gilt top, beveled edges good paper, 
bold type, $2.00. From same plates, plam cloth, $1.25. Faper, 
50C. Sent post-paid upon receipt of price. 

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Works of Thomas Paine. 

The Author Hero of the American Revohition atid the promoter and defender of 
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CoillIUOIl Sense, a Revolutionary pamphlet, addressed to the inhabitants 
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The Crisis. Containing the full XVI. numbers. Written during the darkest 
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Paine's Religions and Theological Works Complete, com- 

Tpvi&in^ the A ffe of Feasoii — An Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology ; 
An Examination of the Prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ ; The Books 
of Mark, Luke and John ; Contrary Doctrines in the New Testament between 
Matthew and Mark; An Essay on Dreams; Private Thoughts on a Future 
State ; A Letter to tlie Hon. T^honias Erskine; Religious Year of the Theo- 
philanthropists; Precise History of the Theophilauthropists ; A Discourse 
Delivered to the Society of Theophilanthropists at Paris ; ALettertoCamille 
Jordan; Origin of Freemasonry; The Names in the Book of Genesis ; Ex- 
tract from a Reply to the Bishop of Llandaff ; The Book of Job ; Sabbath or 
Sunday ; Future State ; Miracles; An Answer to a Friend on the Publication 
of the A^e of Reason ,• Letters to Samuel Adams and Andrev/ A. Dean ; Re- 
marks on Robert Hall's Sermons; The word Religion; Cain and Abel; The 
Tower of Babel; To Members of the Society styling itself the Missionary 
Society ; Religion of Deism ; The Sabbath Day of Connecticut ; Ancient 
History ; Bishop Moore ; John Mason ; Books of the New Testament ; Deism 
and the Writings of Thomas Paine, etc. The work has also a fine Portrait of 
Paine, as Deputy to the National Convention in France, and portraits ot 
Samuel Adams, Thomas Erskine, Camille Jordan, Richard Watson, and 
other illustrations. One vol., post 8vo., 432 pages, paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 

Paine's Political Works Complete, in two volumes, post svo, cloth, 

illustrated, containing over 500 pages each. Price $i.ou per volume. 

Volume I. contains: Common Sense and the Epistle to the Quakers; The 
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from Paine to Washington ; Letter from Washington to Paine ; Dissertation 
on Government, the Affairs of the Bank and Paper Mone^' ; Prospects on the 
Rubicon; or, an Investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Poli- 
tics to be agitated at the next Meeting of Parliament ; Public Good, being an 
Examination into the claim of Virginia to the Western Territory, etc. 

Volume II. contains: Rights of Man in two Parts, (Part I. being an Answer 
to Burke's Attack on the French Revolution ; Part II. contains Principle and 
Practice) ; Letter to Abb€ Sieyes ; To the Authors of the Republican ; Letter 
Addressed to the Addres.ser£ on the Late Proclamation ; Letters to Lord 
Onslow; Dissertation on First Principles of Government; Letters to Mr. 
Secretary Dundas; Speech in the French National Convention; Reasons 
for Sparing the Life of Louis Capet; Letter to the People of France ; On the 
Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI. to Trial ; Speech in the National Conven- 
tion on the Question, " Shall or shall not a Respite of the Sentence of Louis 
XVI. take place ?" ; To the People of France and the French Armies ; Decline 
and Fall of the English System of Finance ; Agrarian Justice, etc. 

Life of Thomas Paine. By the Editor of the National, with Preface 
and Notes by Peter Eckler. Illustrated with views of the Old Paine Home- 
stead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; also, portraits of the most 
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Paine's Vindication, a Reply to the New York Observer's Attack upon 
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BIBLE MYTHS, and their Parallels in other Religions : Being a Comparison of 
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Old Spanish Romances. 

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The History of Don Quixote of la Mancha. 

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Mateo Aleman. Translated from the French edition of Le Sage, 
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Asmodeus, or the Devil upon Two Sticks. 

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Vanillo Gonzales, or the Merry Bachelor. By 

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The Adventures of Gil Bias of Santillane. 

Translated from the FVench of Le Sage by Tobias Smollett. With 
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"Handy in form, thev are well printed from clear type, and are got up 
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reach. The publisher has spared no pains with x\\&tc\..^''— Scotsman. 



Popular editions of tlie Spaiiisti Romanoes. 
Asmodeus; or, the Devil upon Two Sticks. 

Bv A R Le Sage. With designs by Tony Johannot. Translated 
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^^ A^neNvMUustrated edition of one of the masterpieces of the world of flctJon 

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^ Adventtires related in an amusing"^ manner. The writer exhibits remark- 
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Vanillo Gonzales, or the Merry Bachelor. By 

Le Sage Translated from the French. With five illustrations by 
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Audacious, witty, and entertaining in the highest degree. 

The Adventures of Gil Bias of Santillane. 

Translated from the Frencli of Le Sage by Tobias Smollett. With 
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New edition, carefullv revised. With twelve illustrations by R. d« 
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A classic in the realm of entertaining literature. 

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^^With hi. Son the Count devoted himself at St. Helena to the care of the Em- 
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NaDoleon in Exile; or A Voice from St. Helena. 

Opmions and Reflections of Napoleon on the Most Important Evente 
in his Life and Government, in his own words. By Barry E. 
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"^"t^^J^it^^^l^i'^ of the most interesting and valuabl. 
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Mr. O'Meara mutually support each other. 

Shakespeare Portrayed by Hirnself. AReveia^ 

tion of the Poet in the Career and Character of one of his own Dra. 
matic Heroes By Robert Waters, i vol., i2mo., cloth extra, lT.25. 
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fs written iSgoodlnd clear language, exceedingly picturesque and is alto- 
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Cobbett's, (Wm.) English Grammar. Editedb, 

Robert Waters, i vol., i2mo., cloth |i. 00. 

•Of nil the books on English grammar that I have met with Cobbettt^ 
seemTtome the best, and indeed,///, only one to be ^^^'^ f'\ttli^''lliZ 
feldnng English. His style is a model of ^^^J^f .V^^Ivl.S J; J«/ wt^ 
streneth He wrote English with unconscious ease. -Richaid <>'^«/ T^^jl-j 
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